Advanced Ceramic Membranes for Sustainable Waste Engine Oil Purification and Pollution Control

Each year, significant quantities of waste engine oil (WEO) are generated and often improperly disposed of in soil or water, leading to severe environmental issues. Just one liter of waste engine oil can contaminate up to 106 liters of water. Regenerating or re-refining WEO is a promising method for pollution control and can also provide base oil for new engine oils. A membrane-based filtration system offers a chemical-free method with advantages such as high separation efficiency, scalability, a smaller footprint, and high-quality output. This study involves the fabrication of chemically stable reduced graphene oxide (rGO) coated tubular ceramic hydrophobic membrane was prepared and its application for purification of waste engine oil, which is not extensively explored. Amine-functionalized rGO prepared and coated on the tubular ceramic supports. Membrane properties in terms of surface morphology, pore size and surface wettability along with the performance in terms of oil flux and soot removal was investigated. The results showed that soot content of the waste engine oil permeate was found to reduce by ˜80% compared to the as-collected waste engine oil. The oil flux is ˜2.5 L m‐2 h‐1 at the applied temperatures of 40°C and transmembrane pressure of 10 bar. This study contributes to the growing field by demonstrating a rGO-coated ceramic membrane for contaminant removal for waste oil.